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Bob Dylan: Pitch man

(AP) Taking a cue from Donald Trump, Senate Democrats
came out with a budget plan Friday that would have a few dozen
state agency managers hearing "You're fired!"
Cuts to department budgets and a requirement that agencies have
only a single deputy commissioner - which would dismiss 38
assistant commissioners making at least $72,000 - are a key part of
their strategy for ridding the state of a projected $160 million
deficit.

"It's now time to put state agencies on a Slim Fast diet,
especially at the upper management levels," said Senate Majority
Leader Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar.

The plan, which is scheduled for a vote Wednesday, follows Gov.
Tim Pawlenty's lead in seeking sales tax payments on leased cars
upfront, but diverges from Republican proposals in most ways.

One of the largest plugs for the budget hole would come from
doing away with some corporate tax exemptions commonly called
loopholes. For instance, the DFL senators would demand that
companies that now avoid state taxes by qualifying as foreign
companies actually have at least $2 million worth of property and
$1 million in payroll costs outside the United States.

In all, the tax changes would bring in $109 million next budget
year, which begins in July. The corporate tax portion accounts for
$58 million of that.

DFL leaders said their focus on trimming the top level of
government is an attempt to spread the pain, something they said
wasn't done last year when legislators were tackling a $4.5 billion
deficit.

Including the restriction on non-unionized managers, the DFL
proposal requires most agencies to cut 5 percent from their
operating budgets. Pawlenty had called for a 3 percent cut.

The plan avoids Pawlenty's call for taking roughly $40 million
from health and welfare programs, accomplished largely by cutting
payments to hospitals, pharmacists and nursing homes. On that
score, the Senate is aligned with a House Republican-crafted
budget.

The Senate would tap $40 million from a fund that pays for
Minnesota's subsidized insurance program, Minnesotacare, but they
characterized it as a loan. Pawlenty and the House GOP also target
that account.

The Senate proposal actually makes $190 million worth of cuts
and shifts, which gives them $30 million to pay for new priorities.

Like the House, they would enact longer sentences for predatory
sex offenders. But they also put more into victims support programs
and those that supervise sex offenders upon their release.

The House plan would avoid most of those cuts in payments to
health care providers and the Senate avoids them altogether.

And the Senate would transfer just over half of what the House
and governor are proposing from a fund that pays for Minnesota's
subsidized insurance program, Minnesotacare, to the state's general
fund. That money ultimately comes from taxes on health care
services.

Unlike the House budget, the Senate proposal doesn't count on
proceeds from expanded gambling. The House has given its approval
to add slot machines at Canterbury Park racetrack in Shakopee,
which would create the state's first non-tribal casino.

Johnson said casino revenues are too volatile to build into a
budget.

It doesn't end the discussion, however. Senate Tax Chairman
Larry Pogemiller, DFL-Minneapolis, said he would be willing to
discuss the casino plans separate from the budget.

Once the Senate passes its plan, negotiators from the two
chambers will have a month to reach a compromise. There is no
requirement that a budget fix be passed this year, reducing the
incentive for compromise.

Highlights of the DFL Senate budget plan:

-$57.9 million from changing the way a handful of taxes are
handled for highly paid executives and foreign operating
corporations

-$39.4 million from a fund that pays for Minnesota's subsidized
insurance program, Minnesotacare, to the state's general fund. That
money ultimately comes from taxes on health care services.

-$35.6 million from putting an up-front sales tax on car rentals

-$30.2 million from a 5 percent cut to state agency operating
budgets

-$12 million from agency surpluses would be put back into the
general treasury

-$10.5 million from requiring the wholesaler, rather than the
retailer to pay the state sales tax on cigarettes